One of my favorite movies is the Indiana Jones movie The Last Crusade. It’s the story of Indiana Jones and his father’s quest for the holy grail, the legendary chalice that Jesus used in his Last Supper with his disciples. In one of the final scenes, the ancient temple they’ve found the chalice in is collapsing and people are running for their lives as the walls are falling and the ground opens. The grail falls into a deep crevice created by the earthquake, and Indiana Jones is hanging in the crevice by one hand, reaching with the other hand to grab the grail. He can almost reach it, as he becomes entranced by allure of the grail. All around him rocks are falling, the ground is shaking, the temple is collapsing, but he’s fixated on the grail. Finally a voice breaks through the spell, the voice of his father, who says, "Indiana, let it go." Indiana climbs out of the crevice, and together he and his father escape just as the temple completely collapses.
The power of a voice to break the spell of temptation. The power of a voice to bring us back to reality. There used to be a commercial for an investment firm that said, "When E. F. Hutton speaks, people listen." Who do you listen to when they speak? Maybe it’s the voice of a parent. Whenever my mom said, "Timothy James Peck with that certain tone, I listened because I knew I was in trouble. Or perhaps the voice of our spouse or a friend you respect. Who causes you to listen just by hearing their voice?
Jesus’ voice has the ability to break through our lives. Have you heard his voice in your life? Today we’re going to talk about Jesus’ voice. Last weekend we started a new series through the New Testament book of Mark called FOLLOWING JESUS IN THE REAL WORLD. Last weekend we looked at the prologue to Mark’s story about Jesus. We saw that Mark writes to chronicle the origin of the Christian faith for us as readers who weren’t alive when Jesus walked the earth. Today we’re going to look at how when Jesus speaks people listen. We’re going to find four short scenes from the life of Jesus where his voice breaks through in a powerful way. Along the way we’re going to explore how we can hear and respond to Christ’s voice in our own lives.
1. Jesus Announces (Mark 1:14-15)
Let’s look at vv. 14 and 15. Jesus launches his ministry after the Roman government imprisons John the Baptist, his forerunner. Jesus begins his ministry in the region of Galilee, which is the region he grew up in. As I mentioned last weekend, Galilee was a rural community in Northern Israel viewed as "the sticks." The poverty in the region of Galilee was terrible, and it was a fertile place for bandits and revolutionaries to hide out.
Jesus begins his work by "proclaiming" God’s good news about God’s kingdom. The word "proclaim" here means "To announce [something] in a formal or official manner" (Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains 33.206). Usually this kind of announcement was given by a herald, the rough equivalent of a town crier. A herald was like the old newspaper boy, who would yell out the newspaper headline, and then say, "Read all about it." The herald didn’t make up his message, but they simply shouted out whatever message had been given to them.
Here Jesus begins his public life by heralding the arrival of God’s kingdom. The time had finally arrived for God’s Kingdom to break through in a powerful and unique way. Now we need to understand what the Jewish expectations were at this time to truly understand what this announcement would mean. The Bible pictures God as ruling heaven as the king over his creation. So God’s kingdom is God’s rule and reign in heaven. But on the earth it’s another story, because God has given the human race a significant amount of freedom to rule and reign over our own lives. We rule over our lives under God’s sovereignty, but God gives us a lot of room to exercise our own dominion, even if our way is often a destructive way. This is one reason why God allows bad things to happen, because many of these bad things happen as a consequence of our rule and reign over our own lives.
To say that the Kingdom of God has arrived is to say that God’s rule and reign from heaven has invaded our reign on this earth. Jesus’ announcement here declares that the decisive movement of God’s dominion has finally arrived, that God’s intervention in our world has finally come. Whereas before Jesus God was sovereign over the events of human history, now God has entered into human history in a new and special way.
So now here on earth there are two kingdoms, two different reigns, that are running parallel to each other. There’s our reign as human beings, with our kingdoms, our governments, and our power structures. But there’s also the rule and reign of God through Jesus Christ. Each reign has its own values, its own king, its own vision for life. These two opposite kingdoms run parallel to each other, approaching the end of human history.
Until Christ returns again at the end of the age these two kingdoms will stay parallel This is the part that the people of Israel hadn’t counted on, because they figured that once God’s kingdom invaded human history, the human kingdoms of this world would be toppled and destroyed. But for now, they run parallel. But at the end of human history, the book of Revelation says that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ (Rev 11:15). So we shouldn’t confuse the entrance of God’s kingdom that Jesus is announcing here with the consummation of God’s kingdom at the end of the age (Garland, Mark NIV Application Commentary, p. 59).
Jesus announces the entrance of God’s kingdom, inviting people to enter into the kingdom by making a new start and trusting in his message. The challenge to repent and believe suggests that no one lives under God’s rule and reign automatically, merely because of their ethnic origin or their church membership. Every person must enter the kingdom by making a new start of faith.
Here we find the first way Jesus’ voice speaks with authority. Jesus speaks with authority BY ANNOUNCING THE ENTRANCE OF GOD’S DOMINION IN HUMAN HISTORY.
God’s kingdom was now present because the King had arrived. This is why Jesus calls us to trust him and make a new start. Because God’s kingdom had invaded human history, it was now possible to live under God’s dominion on this earth. Living under God’s reign wasn’t just a hope for the future or a dream for another day, but it could become a reality at this moment. You and I can now live under God’s dominion even today.
2. Jesus Calls (Mark 1:16-20)
But Jesus’ voice of authority doesn’t end with this announcement. Look at vv. 16-20. Here we find Jesus walking along the Sea of Galilee, which was a body of water in the region of Galilee. This body of water was more accurately a lake, though many people back then called it the Sea of Galilee or the Sea of Tiberius. It’s about seven miles wide at its widest part and about 13 miles long. The Sea of Galilee is know for all kinds of fish, so fishing in Galilee was a booming industry.
As Jesus walks by one of the many fishing ports along the shore, he sees two brothers fishing. Now when we think of fishing, most of us think of a leisure activity. We think of chartering a half-day boat fishing out of Long Beach for albacore or about hiking to a secluded place in the Sierras to fly fish for trout. But fishing here is the livelihood of Simon and Andrew, their profession, not their hobby. They’re working, throwing out circular nets, and dragging them back in, so they can sell the fish and support their families.
Jesus’ words are short and stunning: "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." His words have the force of a summons, an invitation that comes with authority. The call to follow is a call to discipleship, a call to become an apprentice and a pupil of Jesus. Simon and Andrew don’t know much about who Jesus is, but they respond to the call by leaving behind their livelihood to become disciples of Jesus. The same sort of scene is repeated with James and John, only this time we find that these two brothers not only leave behind their livelihood, but also their father.
Here in this second scene we find the second way Jesus speaks with a voice of authority. Jesus speaks with authority BY CALLING PEOPLE TO FOLLOW HIM AS DISCIPLES.
The calling of these initial four followers of Jesus is remarkable, because it happens so abruptly. There’s no interview or probation period, no testing of their Bible knowledge or entrance exam. We know from the rest of Mark’s story that these four men aren’t even sure who Jesus is yet; they just know that they want to be with him.
Notice that Jesus’ call to discipleship came on their own turf. They weren’t in church or attending synagogue, it wasn’t the Sabbath or a special time religious holiday. They were simply just providing for their families, plying their trade, when suddenly the call of Jesus invaded their lives and changed everything.
Jesus still calls people to follow him as disciples in the same way. Following Jesus as a disciple is what it means to be a Christian. It means making a new start and trusting Jesus, even though we don’t have it all figured out yet. I wonder what these four guys heard in Jesus’ voice that made them drop everything. I wonder what they saw in Christ’s face to cause them to follow.
People today hear the call of Jesus in much the same these four men did back then. I think back to how I first heard Jesus’ call to follow. I first started hearing his voice calling me into discipleship when I was sitting in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. I heard the same voice through a coworker in a psychiatric hospital in Pomona I worked at. While we worked together, plying our trades, I encountered this same call. And I too responded to that call to follow, to become a disciple of Jesus.
Maybe you’ve heard the call of Jesus while sitting at an intersection waiting for the light to change or while changing the diaper on your son or sorting through your tax records. Wherever you are, the call of Jesus can come to you. Just avoiding church and religious people can’t insulate you from this summons to follow Jesus, to become a disciple of Jesus.
I find it comforting that Jesus says, "I will make you." We’re not called because we’ve arrived at some super level of spiritual maturity. Jesus’ calling of these ordinary laborers shows us that the Kingdom of God invades human history in small and subtle ways, not with fanfare and fireworks, but by calling four ordinary laborers busy at work. Yet when it comes, it makes us into something different than we were before It made Peter and Andrew fishers of men, people who would be empowered by God to invite others into the rule of God.
Here in this small community of five--Jesus and four fishermen--we find the seeds that would flower into the Christian Church. After announcing the Kingdom of God, the first thing Jesus does is create a new community. It’s this same new community you and I became a part of when we respond to Jesus’ voice. Jesus demonstrates his authority when he calls us to become his followers.
3. Jesus Teaches (Mark 1:21-22)
Look at the third scene in the story, vv. 21-22. Jesus moves from the shore of the sea of Galilee to a synagogue in the city of Capurnaum. Capurnaum is going to be Jesus’ base of operations for his ministry throughout Galilee. Archeologists have actually uncovered the site of this synagogue Jesus visited.
Now synagogues were a special buildings created so Jewish people could gather together to study the scriptures. Since most people didn’t live close enough to Jerusalem to worship God in the Jewish temple regularly, most towns had at least one synagogue. Worship in the synagogue would consist of a series of public readings from the Hebrew scriptures, followed by a sermon or explanation of one of the passages by a lay person in the congregation. Here we find Jesus had been selected that day to give the sermon.
Now the people in this synagogue are amazed at Jesus’ teaching. In fact, the Greek word here for "amazed" is very strong; it means "to be so amazed as to be practically overwhelmed" (Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains, 25.219). Often this word has overtones of fear, so they weren’t just impressed, they were overwhelmed, even scared by the authority Jesus taught with.
Jesus’ authority is contrasted with the authority of the "teachers of the law" or the "scribes." The scribes were the theology experts back then, and they focused on studying the Hebrew scriptures and the traditions of the elders. The scribes all knew how to read and write, which made them the most highly educated members in most communities. They were authorized to give legally binding judgments on questions that the Bible was unclear about, so many people came to the scribes for advice. But whenever they taught, the scribes were careful to always quote whatever authority they based their decision on. So they’d say, "Moses says in the book of Genesis," or "Rabbi Gamaliel teaches" and so forth. They’d always quote another authority, so their teaching always rested on something outside of themselves. That’s what made them so different than Jesus.
Sociologists distinguish between two different kinds of authority people act with. The first is extrinsic authority, which is authority outside of one’s self. That’s the kind of authority the scribes had. It’s also the kind of authority pastors and teachers today use. I can’t just tell you what God wants you to do on my own authority. But I can show you what the Bible says about something, and then based on the external authority of the Bible, I can tell you what you need to do. So as a pastor, I exercise extrinsic authority, like the scribes did, an authority outside of myself.
The other kind of authority sociologists talk about is intrinsic authority, authority that comes from within. This is the kind of authority Jesus taught with. He didn’t quote scripture verses or cite the opinions of previous teachers or rabbis. He simply said, "This is the way it is." To teach in that way was to claim to have a special kind of authority that went far beyond that of a teacher, rabbi or religious leader. It was more like the authority of a prophet or some other special representative of God. This kind of authority was so overwhelming, it frightened the people in this synagogue.
So here we find the third way Jesus demonstrates his authority. Jesus demonstrates his authority BY TEACHING PEOPLE NEW REALITIES ABOUT GOD.
The teachings of Jesus were radical and innovative because he spoke with authority. We know from the other Gospels, that sometimes Jesus said, "You’ve heard that it was said, but I say to you." That kind of formula tells us that Jesus believes himself to be speaking the very words of God himself in his teaching. Jesus didn’t just summarize what others said, but he spoke directly from the heart of God.
And Jesus’ teachings have carried that same kind of authority down through the ages. His sermon on the mount has inspired many through the centuries, people as diverse as the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy to the Indian reformer Mahatma Ghandi. His teachings are in a category by themselves, because they speak with razor sharp incisiveness, yet they’re coated with the mercy of God.
If you place yourself under the teachings of Jesus, I guarantee it will change your life. You’ll find yourself actually loving your enemies, really giving yourself away for the sake of others, genuinely sacrificing for God’s kingdom. You’ll find yourself praying the way Jesus taught, organizing your priorities the way he modeled, treating your spouse and your kids the way he instructed, and so forth. You’ll find your business practices change, new values will emerge, a new vision for your life will captivate your heart. You’ll never be the same again if you put yourself under his teachings.
Yet many of Jesus’ teachings are difficult. Not so much difficult to understand, but difficult to live by. His saying, "It’s harder for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle" worries us. When he says that anyone who loves husband or wife, father or mother, son or daughter more than they love him cannot follow him, that troubles us. When he tells us to love those who hate us, we wonder how we can do it.
Yet these teachings turn our lives upside-down and place us under the rule and reign of God. Jesus teaches us with authority.
4. Jesus Rebukes (Mark 1:23-28)
While Jesus is teaching, he’s interrupted. Look at vv. 23-28. Notice the irony here. Within a holy place of worship during a holy time of worship, an unholy presence makes itself known. A man possessed by an evil spirit disrupts this teachable moment.
Now people today sometimes struggle with the idea of a person being possessed by an evil spirit. We think, maybe this was just the way they referred to mental illness back then. Yet the Bible clearly teaches the existence of an unseen spiritual realm of both good and evil spirits. These spiritual beings try to influence people, and given the opportunity, they can gain a foothold in people’s lives. In this man’s case, his body has become like a host for a demonic spirit.
This evil spirit speaks on behalf of all evil spirits when it asks Jesus, "What do you want with us? Have you come to destroy us?" This spirit recognizes Jesus for who he is, even if the no one else here recognizes him. Yet Jesus silences the spirit and commands it to leave this man alone. With a shriek the spirit comes out, and the man is delivered from his bondage to evil.
Here again, Jesus speaks with authority. Jesus demonstrates his authority BY REBUKING THE FORCES OF EVIL.
Since God’s kingdom is invading time and space, God’s rule and reign is evicting the evil that’s been ruling and reigning up to this point. And of course, the irony is that this evil has found a home in a place of worship, this synagogue of Capurnaum. Yet they were helpless to deliver this poor man who was victimized by this evil spirit.
Jesus continues to speak with authority against the forces of evil today. I’ve seen people dominated and harassed by demonic spirits find relief and freedom through the voice of Jesus today. And if you don’t think the forces of evil are alive again, think again. Think about the Curve fire in San Gabriel canyon a few weeks ago that was started by people making an animal sacrifice to a demon. Think about the fascination with evil and darkness in some movies and music. Think about the evil that motivates people mercilessly massacre others. Christ has the authority to rebuke the powers of darkness.
Conclusion
When Jesus speaks, people listen. Have you heard his voice? Have you heard his announcement of God’s dominion, his calling to discipleship, his teaching about God, and his rebuke of evil?
He still speaks today. Although Jesus isn’t physically present with us anymore, he still speaks with just as much clarity. He speaks through the Bible and he speaks through His Church. Have you heard his voice? Have you responded?
